Corporate Accountability

Another source of problems that can affect an environment and the species that live in it stems from poor or careless industrial practices or management of industrial waste by government and large corporations. In Russia, for example, nuclear radioactive waste is threatening the Arcticregion. The figures and impact of this mentioned in the previous link suggests that the amount of radiation is similar to that which was present at the Chernobyl incident in 1986.

The Gold industry has also left a set of environmental, social and political problems in its wake. For example, a dam on a gold mine owned by Aurul SA broke, spilling waste water, highly contaminated with cyanides and heavy metals. From the river in Romania it made its way into Hungary. Amongst various other things, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF,

• A rare species of otter, that was only 400 strong before the spill can no longer be seen.
• More than “100 tonnes of dead fish have been collected from the river’s surface—but many more are believed to be lying on the river bottom. In addition to those species directly affected by the toxic spill, there is a secondary danger to all species which feed on anything living in the river”.
• Farmers have reported dead or blinded livestock.
• The ecological damage has been huge and the cost estimates are still to be completed. Some scientists fear that it will take many years to restore the waters.

WWF’s special coverage of this issue is no longer available online, but they have a report  about it which has further details.

The corporate-led form of globalization that we see today also affects how natural resources are used and what priorities they are used for. This site’s section on corporations and the environment looks into some of these issues further.

Media coverage of these issues also feels a bit limited. For example, dramatic incidents, such as nuclear meltdowns or large tanker oil spills may create sustained media coverage but other incidents which may be just as damaging in their impact, but less dramatic, are heard of much less, and certainly not in such a sustained manner.

Even with oil spills, some huge spills go almost unmentioned. As reported by the Swedish Umeå International School of Public Health and noted byThe Guardian, more than 30bn gallons of toxic wastes and crude oil had been discharged into the land and waterways of Ecuador’s Amazon basin over the past 3 decades. .

That 30 billion compares to the 10.8 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 in Alaska or 205 million gallons spilt in BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The report also claims there are at least two big oil spills per week in the area. The report also details the damage and wasteful extraction process further. (Chevron are facing huge fines in Ecuador for the environmental damage, which they dispute.)

The magnitude of the spills in Ecuador is so much larger than the more dramatic oil spills, yet it is the latter that people tend to remember, as they are the ones more constantly reported on, especially at prime time.

And as well as environmental damage, such practices often contribute to social problems including local conflict, corruption, crime and instability as the oil curse in Nigeria has shown (which, as noted by The Guardian has had over 7,000 oil spills between 1970 and 2000, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleaned up, for example. Between 1976 and 1996, more than 2.4m barrels contaminated the environment. Shell, a major player in the Niger Delta, claims most of their spills are caused by vandalism and terrorism, which local communities hotly dispute).

There are countless other examples of how industrial run-off or other practices has caused a lot of environmental damage. And much of it is for our wasteful lifestyles, but as the following quotes highlight, these are examples of working for the “wrong kind of efficiency.”

It is true that cutting down forests or converting natural forests into monocultures of pine and eucalyptus for industrial raw material generates revenues and growth. But this growth is based on robbing the forest of its biodiversity and its capacity to conserve soil and water. This growth is based on robbing forest communities of their sources of food, fodder, fuel, fiber, medicine, and security form floods and drought.

— Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000), p.1

The closure of industries faced with cheaper goods produced by foreign competitors is correctly labeled as the efficiency of a market economy. But as the automobile engineers said when they built those five hundred horsepower gas-guzzlers for a world that truly wanted efficient cars, “We are working for the wrong kind of efficiency.”

— J.W. Smith, The World’s Wasted Wealth 2, (Institute for Economic Democracy, 1994), p. 175.

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Low Frequency Active Sonar Affect Whales, Dolphins And Other Sea Life

The United States Navy and NATO have been using and testing Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) to detect enemy submarines. Many dolphins and whales who use their own sonar to navigate the oceans have been severely affected. The sound is so loud (over 235dB) that it can and kill and maim whales, dolphins and sea life. LFAS is known to be harmful to humans as well.



Some whale and dolphin strandings are believed to be due to military sonar (Image source: Wikipedia beached humpbackand beached orca)

Global protesting and four lawsuits have convinced the US Navy to end its Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) tests early in the waters off Hawaii. In many places, the general public has reacted strongly to the damage inflicted on marine life and the protest is growing fast as more people become aware of the tests. The campaign still goes on to ensure awareness is raised.

Unfortunately, tests still continue and whales and other marine animals are thought to have been being killed as a result. And, according to environmental organization, Natural Resources Defense Council, “the U.S. Navy is now seeking the power to exempt itself from environmental laws” that are designed to address this concern. (See also this link for additional information.)

For more on LFAS:

• The Stop LFAS campaign web site has generated over half a million email protests and provides links to more information
• A report from the National Resources Defense Council, titledSounding the Depths; Supertankers, Sonar, and the Rise of Undersea Noise
• These articles from the BBC:
  • Julianna Kettlewell, Whales “suffer from the bends”, BBC, December 23, 2004
  • Call for study on impact of sonar, BBC, October 23, 2004
  • Sonar 'may cause whale deaths', BBC, October 8, 2003
  • Janet Williams, US Navy sued over new sonars, BBC, August 8, 2002
  • Why sonar may harm whales and dolphins, BBC, August 4, 2002
• Military sonar blamed for mass dolphin strandings, by Lewis Smith, for The Times (London), April 8, 2009

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More Information

For more information on animal and nature conservation, in general: (as I have hardly done this subject much justice so far!)

• The World Wide Fund for Nature presents information about all aspects of nature.
• The March 1997 issue of New Internationalist magazine is devoted to endangered species.
• The webdirectory is a search engine for environment issues. They have thousands of links.
• Oneworld.net’s coverage of conservation provides many articles.
• The African Conservation Foundation is a portal web site with many links and information on all sorts of issues related to conservation in Africa.